Pages

Saturday, December 9, 2017

Review of Stories: All New Tales ed. by Neil Gaiman & Al Sarrantonio

Given the sheer volume of text appearing online in the past
ten years (not excluding this blog), it’s fair to say the answer to: ‘What makes a good story a good story?’
is different for many, many people.For
some, it’s the marriage of political or social themes to setting, event, or
character, while for others it’s non-stop action.But for certain, what all sides appreciate is
flat out, good storytelling.Well told
stories simply resonate beyond the borders of genre taxonomy or reviews would
put on them.Attempting to capture this
magic is editor Neil Gaiman and Al Sarrantino’s 2010 anthology Stories: All-New Tales.

Dazzling with the stars and lights of a 20’s jazz club in
the desert, “Polka Dots and Moonbeams” by Jeffrey Ford A drop dead gorgeous bit
of storytelling, is.Ford proving mood
matters, this tale perfectly captures the essence of action and romance without
being either of those things. The neon of this story will burn in memory.The shortest story in the collection,
“Parallel Lines” by Tim Powers is about a dead twin trying to get back into the
world through the writing hand of her sister.Setting the tone for the collection (edgy, apparently), “Blood” by Roddy
Doyle is about a everyday man who develops a thirst for blood—or at least seems
to develop, the tendency possibly having been there all along.The story walking a strange, unpredictable
path (from raw meat to parallels with Ozzy Osbourne antics), the man is not
able to keep his thirst a secret from his wife, but they do come to a common
agreement, which is the biggest surprise of all.About demon twins, “Fossil-Figures” by Joyce
Carol Oates traces their paths through life from the very different
dispositions they begin with.One weak
and frail the other strong and virile, it takes the ending of the story to
confirm the relationship.

A bizarre story, “Loser” by Chuck Palahniuk tells of a frat
boy who takes acid and becomes a contestant on The Price Is Right.A surreal experience, Palahniuk juxtaposes a
variety of things, from the mundanity of the items up for bid on the show, the
verve of the contestants, the cheering, shouting crowd, and the young man’s
psychedelic situation.Not sure how well
the psychedelic side of the story is captured, but the point is clear.A brief but bizarre story of revenge,
“Unbelief” by Michael Marshall Smith tells of an everyday man who confronts
another in a park.With the mundane
activity of others’ lives occurring around them, the revenge is enacted.It’s the contrast of the everyday man’s
return to said revenge where the story twists in strange ways.A vampire story unlike any vampire story I’ve
ever read (almost deserving of quote marks around ‘vampire’), “Juvenal Nyx” by
Walter Mosley tells of a black activist in the 60s, the strange audience member
who attends a rally one evening, and the new future it starts for him.Vampire, but nothing resembling cheesy vampire.

Perhaps still leaning on the weight of Watership Down, I’m not sure how Richard Adam’s “The Knife” meets
Sarrantino & Gaiman’s outlay of escalating and intriguing plotting.A story that escalates and intrigues but
fizzles, “Mallon the Guru” by Peter Straub tells of a European who goes to
India to achieve a higher spiritual and mental plane.But there is a damn good meeting with a
maharishi.An extremely tough, emotional
story for anyone who has children, “Weights and Measures” by Jodi Picoult tells
of two parents, the sudden loss of their 7-year old daughter, and their
different reactions.A powerful,
difficult, but true read.A serial
killer story that attempts to keep the reader guessing (and therefore draw them
in) by applying a fishing technique to murder, “Catch and Release” by Lawrence
Block sees a single man picking up young women hitchhiking and deciding their
fate.One of the least successful
stories in the anthology.

A story that attempts to spin the tables on the idea of
reactionary anger, “The Therapist” by Jeffery Deaver tells of a man who
believes he can see ‘nemes’ in people, a certain something that causes people
to suddenly lose control and do things like kill people.Believing therapy will help these people,
when he encoutners a woman who does not succumb spins the tables. A simple
story at best, “Human Intelligence” by Kurt Andersen tells of a woman who
discovers a piece of alien technology, then tracks down the alien, living in
disguise in London, for a conversation.Unless there is something I missed, it’s very blasé material.A solid story (as ever seems the case with
Jonathan Carroll), “Let the Past Begin” tells of a woman who visits an oracle
regarding the uncertain parentage of her son.Ultimately a reflection on age and ageing, Carroll re-frames our perceptions
in effective fashion.“A Life in
Fictions” by Kat Howard is a relatively cheap conceit; a writer borrows from
aspects of his girlfriend to create characters in his novels, and eventually,
well, it’s a fantastical, so you can imagine.I have an extremely stong feeling this idea has been done before.

An interesting story
for the singularity of its premise (difficult to do these days), in “Unwell”
by Carolyn Parkhurst a vindictive, older sister continues to plague her younger
sister even into old age.Both funny and
heartbreaking, Parkhurst captures a mini-character portrait in good form.Michael
Swanwick’s contribution “Goblin Lake” takes a micro and macro look at
storytelling through the lens of a Grimm Brothers-esque haunted lake.While perhaps a touch overt, it remains
reflective.A story that begins
on a Jack Vance note, “The Cult of the Nose” by Al Sarrantonio tells of one
man’s growing obsession with the appearance of people wearing a large,
prosthetic nose at disastrous events throughout history.(The story does not end on a Jack Vance note.)
Almost a surreal story, “Land of the Lost” by Stewart O'Nan tells of a woman
searching for something only she seems to know of.A very brief affair, Nan ends the story in
complementary fashion to the premise, but which perhaps may leave the story
more specimen than a tale.

Consumate
yarn-spinner Joe R. Lansdale’s contribution to the the anthology is “The Stars
Are Falling”.Set (invariably) in East
Texas in the early 20th century, Lansdale channels the film Sommersby in featuring a man apparently
dead in war (WWI) returning home, with domestic troubles of the romantic and
familial variety ensuing.Some expected
Texas swang with not much meat, “The Stars Are Falling” by Joe R.
Lansdale is about a dead man who returns to his East Texas home after being
shot in WWI.Coming upon the man, his
reaction subverts the reader’s initial opinion of the man.Dark
like a day threatening to rain, Neil Gaiman’s “The Truth Is a Cave in the Black
Mountains” is the story of a dwarf looking for treasure but with much more on
his mind.Possessing a beautiful
storytelling voice, it should be read aloud.

Stories closes on not one, but three high notes in a
row.Despite the pretentious title, “Stories”
by Michael Moorcock is one of the highlights of the anthology.Feeling almost autobiographical, the story
tells of a writer who recounts the life of a fellow writer and friend after he
has commited suicide.Possessing an
excellent flow of prose, the underlying idea of sthe story, whether Moorcock
intended it or not, is one decidedly realist (and all the better for it, in my
opinion).“The
Maiden Flight of McCauley's Bellerophon.”The story of
three men who organize an act of kindness for a woman who meant a lot to their
early careers at the Smithsonian, and in one man’s case something more, it is
an emotional piece that involves the history of the U.S flight program in North
Carolina and a little something extra.Hand’s fine prose telling an affective story with real substance, it is
arguably one of the best things she’s ever written.(For a longer review, see here.)And lastly is Joe Hill’s excellent “The Devil
on the Staircase”.Experimental in form
(the text takes the shape of a staircase), it’s an almost mythological tale of
the choice one man faces in the slopes of Italian mountains, and the after
effects it leads.

In the end, Stories:
All New Tales, once you get past the generic title, is a worthwhile anthology.The level of quality one typically reserved
for curated anthologies, the fact the stories are all originals adds to the
intrigue.For me, Jeffrey Ford, Michael
Moorcock, Elizabeth Hand, and Joe Hill knocked their stories out of the park,
with Roddy Doyle, Jodi Picoult, Carolyn Parkhurst, and Jonathan Carrol close on
their heels, though undoubtedly other readers will find something different to
love.I guess the bottom line is: for
any reader who complains that fiction today is too political and not
story-driven, Stories delivers.

All original to the anthology, the following are the
twenty-seven stories in Stories: